SUITS TARGETING GANGS HAVE TOWN SPLIT IN TWO

Roberto Padilla laughed as he searched for familiar names in a copy of a lawsuit Cicero filed this week against him and scores of other alleged gang members in an attempt to curb gang problems in the town.

"They don't even got half of them," said 19-year-old Padilla, who's listed in one of the lawsuits as a member of the Latin Kings gang.

A friend, 19-year-old Antonio Ascensio, dismissed the lawsuit as another example of how he and his friends are being unfairly targeted by police.

"They're just violating (our) civil rights. . . . What do they want us to be, the town of Pleasantville?," Ascensio said.

What Cicero Town President Betty Loren-Maltese said she wants is for her community to be safer.

"This is just another part of our war against the street gangs," Loren-Maltese said at a news conference Wednesday. Loren-Maltese also said "gang-free zone" signs will be erected in the next month, warning gang members that their cars can be impounded.

Her comments came a day after two lawsuits were filed in Cook County Circuit Court against two street gangs and nearly 300 individuals the town has identified as gang members.

The suits seek to have the individuals listed as members of the Latin Kings and Noble Knights gangs declared public nuisances and ordered to pay more than $22 million in damages. The lawsuits also ask for court orders prohibiting gang members from engaging in a long list of activities such as gathering in certain "target areas" of the town.

While Cicero officials haven't detailed the town's gang problems, residents say there is evidence of it everywhere. In the door of Padilla's apartment on 55th Court are two holes left by bullets, one of which hit Padilla in the leg.

And a neighbor, Garlen Gean, motions to what looks like two rearview mirrors that he uses to monitor the neighborhood without having to go outside.

Gean, who has lived in his house for 20 years, said gang trouble started affecting the neighborhood about six years ago, and he supports town officials' recent efforts to clean it up.

"It's time to do something about it," Gean said.

Last month, town officials took unusual steps toward attacking the problem, approving an ordinance that gives the town authority to kick gang members out of town and another law allowing the town to seize their cars if they return.

To file the two lawsuits, Loren-Maltese said the town used Cicero and state police records to put together a list of people who are "self-admitted gang members or they have been picked up for gang activity."

Henry Knackstedt, who is named in one of the lawsuits, is an admitted gang member. A tattoo on his right forearm pictures a knight and the initials "NK," which stands for Noble Knights. But the 30-year-old said he left the gang life long ago.

"I grew up . . . ," said Knackstedt. "I admit I terrorized Cicero when I was a kid, but I haven't been out there in six years at least."

Knackstedt said he's now a taxpayer, voter and steady member of a labor union, pulling out several years of membership cards to prove it. But when he first heard about the lawsuit, Knackstedt said, he knew people would come knocking on his door.

"I probably will move out of Cicero just to get rid of the headaches," he said.

Some residents report the town's recent efforts to rid itself of gangs is already having an impact.

Victor Borrego, 18, a senior at Cicero's Morton East High School who said he is a former member of the Satan Disciples gang, said he knows six or seven people have left town out of fear of facing the $500 a day fine called for in the town's anti-gang ordinance or having their cars towed.

"The ones that are going to get kicked out, they're already moving out," Borrego said.

Alex Valdovinos, who identified himself as a member of the Latin Pachucos gang, said his neighborhood has been quiet since Cicero approved the anti-gang ordinances a few weeks ago.

"There's a lot of guys that don't want to come out anymore,"said Valdovinos, a 17-year-old student at Morton East. "They feel harassed by the cops."

Valdovinos warned, though, that the town will not be able to chase the gangs away.

"You're not going to walk away from your friends because the cops don't let you hang with them," he said.

But at the news conference, Loren-Maltese expressed confidence that the lawsuits and ordinances will free Cicero of gangs. Noting that one of the gang members named in the lawsuit goes by the nickname "Capone," she said people will soon be able to "finally say that the town got rid of Capone through the courts."